May 5, 2021

Join our guest, Eunice Park, as she reflects on the blessings and challenges of her heritage as a Korean American, as well as her accompaniment of immigrant young adults. This episode is filled with wisdom born of experience as Eunice creates safe space for people to do their inner work and find freedom.

Eunice notes “Rather than having to prove our value and prove our worth through materialism or through money or finances, our inherent value is in our created-ness. We are born with dignity and the basis of our creation, this Imago Dei, this gratuitous love of God. We cannot earn that love and we cannot have that love destroyed. God wouldn't love us any less or any more by anything that we do.”

“The job of the minister becomes accompanying and journeying with that person, helping guide them, being there for support and being their safe space so that they can let that inner identity manifest fully on the outside, rather than trying to figure out who they are on the outside in, and feeling insecure about it....So that they can understand that who they are is because of whose they are. Who they are is because of God, who God is.”

“Understanding poverty as something much more than giving up money or a salary: it's a way of release, a way of freedom. I think the pandemic invites us to a sense of poverty of control...we think we're in control, but are we really?  I haven't left my house at all for a year; understanding that this is how our lives are and leaning into this understanding of poverty is a freedom, rather than a lack of control. By letting go, we open ourselves up to receiving more.”

References:

Confucianism - The Analects are the most famous resource of Confucius’ teachings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analects

Franciscan Spirituality: Franciscan Spirituality | Franciscan Friars

Immigrant trauma: https://www.ilctr.org/understanding-immigrant-trauma/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1a6EBhC0ARIsAOiTkrGjlPZyS1M7vEAkQh1hrwY2iAbh52q3YnXYXrD5c9iggtWg9JQSEdYaAiGpEALw_wcB

Honor and Shame in Asian cultures: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minority-report/201406/asian-shame-and-honor

Imago Dei Catholic Teaching: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040723_communion-stewardship_en.html

Asian Pacific Islanders - Some API resources: https://www.ncapaonline.org/,

https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/   and    https://18millionrising.org/

St Joseph Worker Program in Orange: http://csjorange.org/ministries/st-joseph-worker-program/; the SJWP Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stjosephworkerprogramorange/

Sexual violence in US statistics: https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence

Spiritual accompaniment: https://www.catholicapostolatecenter.org/art-of-accompaniment.html

Helicopter Parenting: When too much help is no help: https://www.health.harvard.edu/parenting-issues/helicopter-parenting-when-too-much-help-is-no-help

Charism: a gift, talent or skill given for the building up of the community and from which we find energy: https://siena.org/charisms-faq